Issue Roundup 4/30

The Kristalmaan police force have come to you for permission to use phone taps to trace suspected criminals.

Accepted Position

"This is an unacceptable intrusion into the personal lives of the population," says Declan Schultz while checking under your chair for bugs. "Just imagine all of the sensitive personal information that the police will pick up! Would you like someone listening to your calls to your mother or your lover? I think not! Laws should be passed so that the government and police can't stick their big noses where they're not wanted!"

Result

It is illegal for police officers to carry out searches due to strict privacy laws.
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The Issue

A group of 'concerned compatriots' (Citizens Raging Against the Police) have protested against the enormous numbers of policemen enforcing the law on their daily lives.

Accepted Position

"You can't listen to what they're saying!" gasps Police Chief Zeke Levy, horrified. "These nuts would have us living in utter anarchy! If some robbers suddenly decide to break into a shop and steal everything, what's the owner going to do? What could anyone do without a well-funded police force? There has to be justice and law or we'd be nothing better than a bunch of savages. Stick to your guns, I say, and let me arrest these subversives - people need to be taught to show some respect!"

Result

Citizens are regularly arrested in queues for 'loitering'.
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The Issue

"Planning for the People," a popular new movement, has been holding protests all over the country after a recent crisis where the Economic Planning Committee accidentally sent 10 tonnes of teddy bears to a small town in dire need of wheat.

Accepted Position

"This has gone on long enough!" shouts the leader of the protest, Fleur Falopian. "While I am a patriot of our glorious Matriarchy, things are far from perfect. No-one wants to return our economy to capitalist exploitation, but something must be done about the bureaucratic mess that our country is in! Comrades, instead of centralized planning, we can have a democratically controlled economy! Finally we can achieve the socialist dream of workers' power!"

Result

Workers have seized control of the economy.
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The Issue

Scientists and animal rights activists have once again brought up the debate over animal experimentation to your attention.

Accepted Position

"What have those poor, defenceless animals ever done to us?" asks Hack Tokyo, owner of the East Kristalmaan Rabbit Sanctuary. "Kidnapping these helpless creatures from their habitat simply to stick probes and needles in them is just barbaric! How would you like it if someone caged you in a lab and conducted tests on you just to find out whether a new product was fit for sale? Experimenting on animals ought to be banned!"

Result

Dog breeding has been banned in accordance with recent animal experimentation laws.
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The Issue

Wind farms have been set up across the country, generating enormous amounts of renewable energy for the citizens of Kristalmaan. However, there are some who feel that they cause more problems than they solve.

Accepted Position

"Perhaps we're just putting them in the wrong place?" asks Abraham Wall, another engineer. "We should be building wind farms out at sea! Strong uninterrupted winds and no local residents to disturb! Sounds like the perfect solution, if you ask me. Setting them up and maintaining them's going to cost a bomb of course but... well, it's worth it right?"

Result

Kristalmaan has one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
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